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Adjusting pivot...can it damage washers?
- Thread starter ballsagne
- Start date
Usually most well known knife manufacturers design their knives to be wiggle free. If you tighten it down just enough that there is no wiggle I don't see why this is a problem. I did this for all my benchmade and spyderco knives, as does everyone else I know. Get it perfect between wiggle free and smooth deployment and you should be fine. You are gonna have to really crank down to do some serious damage.
Odds are you'll strip the pivot head first.
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2010
- Messages
- 1,003
Actually it depends on the washers. If they go the cheap route and use teflon washers or nylon washers you can deform the washers if you adjust the pivot. My CRKT Drifter had this problem, it came with a bit horizontal play so I adjusted the pivot to remove it and it ended up deforming the washers. You should have no problems if it has bronze phopher washers though.
About the only way i can see adjusting the pivot causing problems would be if you did it while the lock was engaged. Best practice would be to make small adjustments until the blade play is gone when you engage the lock. When you've got this down as a skill -consider a VERY small amount of locktite to hold the pivot bolt in proper adjustment. Then let the knife sit for 24 hours so that the locktite can take hold.Again -very very little locktite is all you need.
I like a really tight pivot on my knives. Don't ask, it's an OCD thing.
But in doing this on knives with a teflon type washer you can deform and even tear the washer if you are not careful. In most well-made knives just taking out the "slop" to get a tight blade will not have a lot of affect on the washer.
Also, on phospher/bronze washers, I don't know how you could deform these. Even nylatron would be hard to do, but could possibly break if too, too tight.
But in doing this on knives with a teflon type washer you can deform and even tear the washer if you are not careful. In most well-made knives just taking out the "slop" to get a tight blade will not have a lot of affect on the washer.Also, on phospher/bronze washers, I don't know how you could deform these. Even nylatron would be hard to do, but could possibly break if too, too tight.